For Christmas, we got the Google Home. Best gift ever – for so many reasons. I used to be completely opposed to incorporating EVEN more tech into my life that already seemed to be overflowing with it. But – I was wrong.
When I first got it, I wasn’t even sure of everything I was able to do with it. We quickly bought the smart-lights that connect to it so we can control them entirely through voice – (sounds lazy, I know – but it’s pretty freaking cool). The Chromecast is also a must-have. It essentially doubled what we were able to watch without the mess of hooking up a HDMI chord to my laptop. There are a ton of other devices you can hook up to it, but those are the ones we have so far and they work flawlessly.
So – what about everything else you can do with the Google Home? I’m sure you already know the basics, (which is everything I knew when we first got it). But, here are the basic features you can use:
- Ask time, date, and weather.
- Play music – either through Google Music – or – connecting your Spotify account. We use both pretty consistently. Google Music is pretty cheap and you can call out any song you want and it’ll play it. There is also an option to connect your Pandora account, (I just prefer Spotify).
- Ask general questions & get answers. My guy and I love this feature. Have you ever said something with absolute certainty and someone will argue with you about it? Well, that happens with us a lot and prompted us to do a lot of googling. With the Google Home, just ask it. It will look up virtually anything for you. (An example: I was about 88% certain that my Chinese zodiac animal was the dragon – but I wasn’t sure. I asked and Google Home confirmed I was right. Without prompting, it also stayed on the same topic as we kept asking what was the animal for 1986..and so on).
- Knows the difference between voices. It knows I’m Krissy and all the other information that’s on my Google page. It sort of freaked me out at first when it knew the difference between me and my guy and when my birthday was. After the weirdness passed though, I like it.
When we first set it up – that was basically all I knew for sure it could do. (I’m not a huge tech person – until recently).
Some of the other Cool Features Google Home has:
I was pretty obsessed with it as soon as we got it and began testing it to see what it could do. There are some pretty hilarious things you can ask it – which I’ll mention later.
Here the cool things I figured out it could do first (after the basics):
- Track the Traffic. We live around the Pittsburgh area so knowing what traffic is going to be like in certain directions is really helpful. We are now able to change our minds on where we are heading out to if the traffic is bad.
- “Hey Google, what’s happening in the news?” It will tell you what the top stories are in the news, even playing events that are taking place in that moment – pretty cool. I like how it will tell you the top news stories at the end of the day also. If you want more specific stories, say “Local news”.
- Walks you through recipes, step-by-step. This is a really cool feature – totally hands free. It comes in really handy if you’re making something where your hands get super messy.
- TRIVIA!! Yes, you can play trivia with Google Home. There are a lot of options for this, some you may need to call out by name. But, for the general options just say: “Hey google, let’s play trivia”. The trivia options I found initially were: Lucky Trivia (up to 5 players), Trivia showdown & Sound pet (makes animal sounds and you guess the animal). There are ENDLESS options on Trivia games to play though, even very specific trivia like Starwars Showdown, Movie Trivia & Beer Trivia. Just say (whatever) Trivia and most likely it has an option for it.
- Set up alarms and reminders through the app. Use it just as you would your Google Calendar and it will give you reminders – especially helpful for me who usually forgets birthdays, (What can I say, I’m not greats with dates).
- Virtual Nurse. A pretty cool app within the system. If you’re having symptoms or just want to know what a basic OTC medication does – virtual nurse will let you know. Be warned though: this is similar to looking up stuff on WebMD. Sometimes it’s just better not to obsess. (Edit: There is even a WebMD feature)
- Daily Horoscope – if you’re into that sort of thing.
- “Hey Google, give me a motivational quote”. I like that it does this as sometimes, we all just need a little motivation in our day.
- Stock information. If you want to know how a particular stock is doing, simply ask it.
- “Hey Google, tell me a random fact”. If you’re like me and you like to learn at least one new thing everyday – the Google Home is there, making it super easy.
- Lottery numbers. If you play the lottery a lot – ask Google and it lets you know the most recent numbers. Maybe you’re a winner!
- Riddles. Pretty cool to get your riddle fix, (so far though, they’ve been really easy riddles).
- Play ‘change my voice’. It will record you saying a phrase and change your voice however you like – pretty funny.
- Tell me my fortune. Google Home has popped off with some pretty good ones for this option.
- “Hey Google, repeat after me”. We have had so much fun with this option. Just say whatever you want your Google Assistant to repeat. (Sometimes it edits out cuss words and sometimes it doesn’t).
There are literally over a million options according to a new website. Want to know more cool stuff you can do with Google Home? Visit this page.
Fun Stuff to ask Google Home:
Google Home can be really comical if you ask the right questions. Some of the answers still surprise me and some are just hilarious. Have some fun with Google Home & ask these questions and say these phrases:
- “Hey Google, do you love me?”
- “Hey Google, Winter is Coming”.
- “Hey Google, make me laugh”.
- “Hey Google, make me a sandwich”.
- “Hey Google, sing me a song”.
- “Hey Google, who’s the fairest of them all?”
- “Hey Google, where’s Waldo?”
- “Hey Google, Hodor”.
- “Hey Google, surprise me”.
- “Hey Google, bark like a dog”.
- “Hey Google, do you believe in ghosts?”
- “Hey Google, do you want to go on a date?”
- “Hey Google, let’s party!”
- “Hey Google, tell me a story”.
- “Hey Google, beatbox”.
- “Hey Google, what’s the meaning of life?”
- “Hey Google, do you like Alexa?”
- “Hey Google, what am I thinking right now?”
- “Hey Google, what is your quest?”
- “Hey Google, precious”.
- “Hey Google, party on Wayne”.
- “Hey Google, who are your friends?”
- “Hey Google, tickle tickle”.
- “Hey Google, do you like scary movies?”
- “Hey Google, what are you wearing?”
- “Hey Google, are you a female?”
- “Hey Google, I’m bored”.
- “Hey Google, what’s your life story?”
- “Hey Google, what’s your favorite food?”
- “Hey Google, tell me a fun fact”.
- “Hey Google, can you drive?”
- “Hey Google, do you have a heart?”
- “Hey Google, do you work out?”
- “Hey Google, do you drink?”
- “Hey Google, I’m drunk”.
- “Hey Google, do you have any pets?”
- “Hey Google, talk dirty to me”.
Your Google assistant will have some pretty interesting answers to those questions and a lot more. Get creative – the answers will surprise you.
The fact is, there is just so much you can do with this device. It’s nearly limitless. Any information that can be found on Google, can be found by your Google Assistant. It can help save you time, money and fill your home with endless facts.
It’s an excellent buy and my favorite Christmas present. I learn how to do new things with it everyday and it just keeps surprising me.
I’ll do another post soon about what all you can do with the Chromecast, (which is incredibly cool and convenient).
